Last week we finished the initial stages of the Activist/Advocacy blog assignment. Essentially, the groundwork for the project has been completed, and now you'll begin working to cohesively elaborate on how you'll respond using the blogging genre to the exigency you've defined. You'll continue to develop posts for your blog that deliver value to your audience, but we're going to complicate things a little bit starting this week.
Tonight I uploaded the assignment sheet for Project 2: Social Media Bundle. Broadly speaking, the goal for this project is to develop knowledge and literacies with building publicity. Specifically, you're aim is to develop a social media presence for your blog. Of course the assignment sheet details this information in more detail, however, I figured I'd contextualize what will follow in this post before I move toward my goals herein. As I mentioned in classes last week, this is the first time we've used this assignment, so it should be exciting to work through this learning opportunity! Here are some initial ideas I have about this assignment:
Utilize Lynda and the Production Lab: There are many tutorials on Lynda. Tutorials that are useful not only for learning how to use web authoring software, tools, and websites, but also for learning how you can use technology in a more purposeful manner. For this assignment, you will be using Facebook and Twitter, and each of you will have the option to supplement your "Social Media Bundle" using at least two supplemental options of your choice. So, I would suggest that each of you begin by watching Anne-Marie Concepcion's "Social Media Marketing with Facebook and Twitter". It's a great resource because it will help show you ways that you can use these two tools in a targeted and sensible way in order to respond to the assignment prompt.
Observe How Other Organizations/Individual Are Using Social Media for Activist/Advocacy Publicity: While I have no data to base this claim on, I'd argue that perhaps one of the greatest tools you have at your disposal for this assignment is to observe how others are using social media to create a digital presence. There are a number of ways you might accomplish this, but one way might be to identify a number of social activism/advocacy groups that are related to the topic you picked for Project 1. One way to identify strong organizations/individuals might be to explore the list of nominees for the Shorty Awards for best Activism in Social Media. If, for instance, your writing about ocean conservancy and stewardship, perhaps, you would want to learn more about what types of social media platforms organizations such as the Surfrider Foundation or Ocean Conservancy use in order to build publicity for the issues they are concerned about.
Learn a Little about Public Relations and Social Networking: I imagine that there are probably a number of a social media marketing agencies, but one example of an organization that seems to resemble the organization you'll be "working" for on this assignment is Medianeedle. I don't know a whole lot about the group, but I do know that Medianeedle maintains a blog that you might turn to for insight into specific questions you encounter as you build your media presence. In particular, two posts from Medianeedle might be useful as a starting place for understanding the broader landscape of social networking: Consider reading "Which Platform Do I Get On? Part 1 and Part 2" These posts will help you think about the different affordances of specific social media platforms, before you begin deciding what platforms you'll use to supplement your Facebook and Twitter presence.
Critically Evaluate your own Assumptions about Social Media: One criticism with using social networking as a tool for activism and advocacy is that it doesn't do a whole lot. That those who enagage in this type of slacktivist activity aren't engaging in 'real' acts of citizenship. At least, that is what some would lead us to believe. However, there are counterarguments. Last Spring, David Carr's "Hashtag Activism, and Its Limits" appeared in The New York Times. If you are so inclined, I'd suggest reading not only the brief news story, but also the comments that readers added. It provides a useful glimpse into understanding the ways people are currently (dis)/valuing digital citizenship, activism, and advocacy efforts. Do you think that digital citizenship is effective? Why and how so? What are the limitations of this type of citizenship? What are the benefits? Reflecting on your beliefs about social media might help you to better organize the aims and expectations you might have for your Activist Blogs and Social Media Bundles.
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